Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
I had turned my back on the O’Murphys and then underestimated how quickly they would respond.
This was a personal attack on me.
He was sending a message that he’d helped me build all of this and could just as easily tear it down.
Stella wasn’t even a target, but an innocent caught in the crossfire of a war she had no part in.
“Fuck!” I yelled as I hit the wood floor with nothing to show for it again.
I tried to calm down and think logically.
The blast had happened by the door. She was most likely by the bar. That had been the last of the bombs to go off. She may have been smart enough to get behind the heavy oak.
I looked over at where the door would have been, tried to estimate where the bar had been before the explosion to judge where to dig.
Luc was still right next to me, lifting with me, pulling away the debris, and looking for any sign.
We found a man I didn’t recognize. He was badly bruised, judging by the gut-wrenching angles some of his limbs were in. He had broken several bones. But he was alive and barely conscious.
Luc yelled for the paramedics while I looked at the man. “Where is Stella?”
His eyes looked glazed. I knew he was hurt, but I was desperate.
For the first time in my life, I begged, “Please, try and think. Please, I need to find her.”
“The blast sent her that way,” he said, pointing in the vague direction we’d found the other girl. The other woman was much taller than Stella. Maybe if she was blown back by the blast, Stella had gone farther.
I handed the man over to the paramedics surrounding me and moved out of the way, heading over to where we’d found the other girl and scrambled to move the bricks and debris.
I gave everything I had, every ounce of determination and strength to find her. The sun began to set, and most of the rescue teams had already departed, having no hope of any more survivors.
But I was not giving up.
Then I saw it: one of her bright pink shoes that matched her hair.
She was so excited when she found them and insisted on showing them off the second she came home from shopping with Olivia.
I remembered the way the sharp stilettos dug into my back as I made her scream my name, wearing nothing but those shoes.
“Over here,” I called as I dug faster.
The dull aches disappeared into a second wind as I pushed to find her.
Finally, I pulled off a large piece of drywall to see her lying crushed in a pile of broken wood.
A small trail of blood was coming from her lips, and her skin was so pale.
I lunged for her, pulling her into my arms and holding her cold body to my chest.
“I am so sorry, baby girl. I did this. This is my fault, and I am so sorry.” Tears streamed down my face, and I didn’t care.
Some men in uniforms came to take her away, but I wouldn’t let her go until Luc put his arms around me and pulled me away.
“Let them help her,” he said over and over.
I still didn’t breathe until one shouted, “I have a pulse!”
“Save her,” I yelled. “Do whatever it takes, spare no expense, just save her.”
One of the paramedics looked at me, her blonde hair in a high ponytail and her face and body covered in soot.
“Sir, if you want to come to the hospital with us, be ready to go the second the ambulance gets here, but stay out of our way.”
“What hospital?” Luc asked, still holding me back.
They shouted something I couldn’t hear, and Luc pulled me away.
“No, I want to go with her. She will be scared if she wakes up.”
“There is no way you are going to stay out of their way. We are going to get there before them and make sure they know who is coming in and the best doctors are ready.”
In the next second, Luc threw me in the back of the car, and we pulled out as the ambulance pulled in.
Luc got behind the wheel and drove like a madman. The ambulance ended up a few blocks behind us. Luc used their siren to help clear the way.
“We are going to make him pay for this,” Luc promised.
“As soon as she is safe,” I agreed. “Not until I know she is going to be okay.”
“She will be,” Luc said, taking another tight corner, ignoring how his back tires spun out just a little. “She is going to make it because you refused to give up on her.”
“I will never give up on her. She is strong and a fighter. She has already survived so much. I will spend the rest of my life making this up to her.”